Iran Deplores Human Tragedy in Canada after Discovery of New Graves of Children
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Iranian Foreign Ministry described the discovery of another mass grave of indigenous children in Canada as a “great human tragedy” and a blatant example of “genocide” in a country whose government resorts to hypocritical and deceptive shows to pretend support for human rights.
In a statement released on Sunday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani described as a “major human tragedy” and “genocide” the discovery of more mass graves of innocent aboriginal children in Canada as revealed in fresh reports.
He said the refusal to present clear reports on the unearthing of these mass graves indicates the true extent of this human catastrophe and is a reminiscent of crimes committed during the UK-controlled white people’s tyrannical and racist rule in Canada.
“These major and heinous crimes have been committed in a country whose government has, by putting on deceptive and hypocritical shows, always tried to create the impression that it is an advocate of human rights and express its opinion as an interventionist country about developments in other countries as if they were beholden to it,” he explained, the Foreign Ministry’s website reported.
The spokesman said the Canadian government’s slogans and claims are aimed at shifting the blame onto others and deflecting attention from its complicity in this human tragedy and bear testimony to the fact that this government and its allies are using human rights as a tool to impose their biased political viewpoints on others.
Kanaani expressed regret and deep concern over the large extent of these crimes and historic genocide while sympathizing with the Canadian indigenous community, saying, “These crimes against humanity will never remain undisclosed to true justice-seekers around the world, and the Canadian government should be held accountable for its dark past.”
An investigative team has found 66 more potential unmarked graves at a former residential school in British Columbia, the Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) said at a press conference.
The announcement of the discovery on Wednesday brings the number to 159 found at the former St Joseph's Mission Residential School -93 were uncovered in May 2021.
Run by the Catholic Oblates order, thousands of Indigenous children were forced to attend the Mission operated between 1886 and 1981.
More than 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children were forced to attend the 139 Indian Residential Schools.
The first one opened around 1825 and the last closed in the 1990s.
The schools were funded by the Canadian government and run by various religious denominations.
Their mission was to wipe out Indigenous traditions and assimilate the children into white culture.
More than 4,100 children are thought to have died in the schools, sometimes buried in mass graves and at other times in graves that, if they were marked, became obscured over the years.
More than 1,900 unmarked graves have been uncovered to date.
